


just in time (to see it all come down)

by Rilo



Category: Generation X (Comic), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/F, Secret Wars (2015), impending character death for everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 05:42:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9585875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rilo/pseuds/Rilo
Summary: In the hours before annihilation, Jubilee and Monet met one last time.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duck_Life](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/gifts).



> Written for the X-Men X-Mas X-Change in 2015, in the span of roughly four hours. And then it took me another year+ to edit and repost it. Originally I intended for this to be a two-part fic, and while the second half may one day be written, at the current time its on hold.

"I know you wanna go help, but Storm needs the younger team to guard--"

"The _world_ is _ending_ ," the younger woman retorts, her words blurring together in her determination to be heard. Sparks pop at the ends of her fingertips, glinting off the metal encasing them as she gestures vaguely toward the television. It hasn't shown anything but shifting battle scenes since the President's announcement. "They're getting their asses trounced! We need to be _out there_ buying them time to stop it!"

"Surge--"

"Is right." Despite all the practice she's had in resisting the urge to snarl and hence not scare the ever-loving crap out of the people she loves, Jubilee can't quite keep her lips from briefly curling back. She shifts Shogo in her arms and whirls around to give Monet a chunk of her mind for interrupting her (and what is _with_ people talking over her today?!) only to lose every insult she'd had ready. Miss Perfect looks like _hell_ ; her uniform is half gone and filthy with dirt and scorch marks, her hair is tangled badly enough that only the weight of its length is holding it flat, and she's--

Monet is bleeding. Her left arm is blistered, just a little in the center of one scorch mark, and deliciously rich-smelling blood is flowing steadily from a cut near her hairline. The woman's eyes are open just a little too wide, darting from Jubilee to Surge. For some reason the former mutant thinks of Penny the first time they'd met, a monster of a girl crouching behind her own claws.

The comparison vanishes when Monet opens her mouth, words clipped but steady. "Noriko, yes? Gather a team, take--take anyone who will be of use. Leave a few to protect the school, but otherwise take _everyone_ who can help. Grab a teleporter and join the main team in New York. Find Nightcrawler when you're there, he'll brief you. "

With a curt nod, Noriko vanishes in a blur of color and ozone that makes Shogo cough and scrunch up his face. "You said it, little guy," Jubilee mutters, rubbing his back as she turns to face Monet again, and finds that too-wide stare fixed on her son. Instinctively, her arms tighten around the infant; Monet doesn't seem to notice the gesture.

"Good, you have Shogo. Do you have a bag packed for him?" Jubilee nods, and has just enough time to tense before a hand encircles her upper arm, gripping like a vice (or Wolvie, when he was trying to physically keep her from following him. Ow.) _'Just like Wolvie'_ , she amends as the other woman starts to physically drag her down the hall, seemingly neither noticing or caring that Jubilee's already begun to stumble trying to keep up. "Ow! Hey, slow down! Baby on board!" 

"He'll live. You're both going to live," Monet mutters, soft enough to nearly be lost in the semi-controlled chaos of the school. There's a thread of desperation in her voice that digs up old memories of smoke and brick dust, and the way the other girl had _screamed_ when they pulled Everett out. Jubilee had learned more words for _no_ and _god_ than she'd ever wanted to. "M--"

"Don't call me that," is the hissed reply before Monet pivots on one foot, jerking Jubilee into the room she and Shogo share. "Grab his things and pack a bag for yourself. I'm taking both of you to my sisters; they can open a portal to get you off-planet."

"What?! Hey, no!" Setting her jaw, Jubilee shifts Shogo onto one arm and jabs a finger at Miss Perfect with the other, straightening to her full height. "Just because my powers are gone doesn't make me any less of an X-Man! I can still help, and if you think I'm going to run and hide while everyone else is fighting--"

She's cut off by the rough press of soft lips against her own, noticing a second later the hands holding her face still. Her first disjointed thought is _'no fucking fair, she looks like hell why isn't she chapped or something,'_ followed a second later by _' **what the fuck?!** '_. She shoves at the other woman's shoulder at the same time Monet pulls back, staying close enough that her breath washes over the vampire's face. Her eyes aren't as wide but just as focused, staring at Jubilee as though waiting for something.

_"What the **fuck** , Monet?!"_

"We're going to lose," she answers, voice low enough that Jubilee wonders who she's trying to keep from scaring. It can't be Shogo, she's never seemed to give a rat's ass, and he's the only other person close enough to hear. "Maybe if we had more time, more warning--it doesn't matter. I've lost _everyone_ I've ever had feelings for. Everyone. I won't--" Monet cuts herself off this time with a shake of her head, lips pressed together in frustration. "If you stay here with him, Shogo will _die_. Is your pride worth more than your son's life, Jubilation?"

Quiet, she glances down at the boy cradled against her chest, his tiny features drawn tight as he stares back up at her. Tracing his eyebrows and the furrows between them, Jubilee draws in a breath she doesn't need and nods quickly. The back draft of Monet's movement shifts the sunglasses nestled in her hair, and she shifts them back into place before picking up her son's pendant to adjust the force field. 

"What do you want to take," Monet asks a moment later with a massive diaper bag in her hands, actually quieting when Jubilee motions for another moment. That's all it takes her to finish fine-tuning the force field to handle Mach what-ever-the-fuck Miss Perfect travels at. Letting the pendant drop back onto his chest, she wraps both arms around her son and buries her nose in his tiny patch of hair. "Take him first."

"I will _not_ \--"

"If you have time to come back, I'll go with you," she promises hastily, her eyes cutting up from Shogo to meet Monet's glare. "I _promise_ I will, but packing's gonna take me a few minutes. You can make it there and back in fifteen, right?" Monet nods hesitantly and Jubilee straightens. "Okay. So take Shogo first and make sure he gets through okay, then come back for me if there's enough time."

"What if there isn't, Jubilee? We are running _out_ of time."

She swallows against the growing lump in her throat. "Then you gotta go with him. He's still a baby, he needs someone to take care of him, and your dad's gonna have his hands full with Claudette. Change is bad for people with autism, right? Another dimension's a really big change, she'll probably be freaking out. So it's gotta be you."

"But I hate children," Monet protests weakly, glancing back down to Shogo.

"He grows on you, kinda like a really adorable fungus. Besides, you're still basically perfect, right? It'll be easy." With a thin chuckle, she ducks her head to press a final kiss against her son's head. "Push the beep-beep, Shogo," she whispers, and manages a weak smile when the force field flares to life. "Good boy, Momma loves you. Here you go, Monet."

Monet shifts the diaper bag full of clothes and baby supplies onto her other shoulder before taking the infant, her expression hovering in the vicinity of uncertainty. Her nose wrinkles when her arms wrap around the field instead of flesh, and Jubilee laughs softy. "Yeah, it's weird the first time. You don't gotta worry about dropping him, the shield's less slippery than it feels."

"Good." Monet nods and tenses to move, then pauses. "Jubilee, I--"

"Yeah, I know, I'm awesome and you love me." She waves away the sentiment, cracking a wide and entirely fake grin. "You can tell me how many of my babies you want later, 'kay? Time to get this show on the road."

With a roll of her eyes Monet's feet leave the ground, accompanied by an excited stream of babble from the child in her arms. "Remember to pack your medication, Jubilee. You're starting to have delusions of grandeur again." She pauses long enough for the haughty expression to fade into grim determination. "I _will_ be back for you." In a gust of wind she's gone, the speed of her exit rattling every window in the mansion.

Jubilee follows her as far as the window, eyes fixed on the steadily shrinking dot until even her inhuman sight can't make them out anymore. She squeezes them shut against the wetness threatening to well up, sniffling as she bites down into her lower lip and sucking on the blood that wells up. "Pull it together, Lee. You've got a world to save," she whispers harshly to herself, gripping the windowsill between both hands.

A second later she throws herself out of it, twisting mid-air to get her feet beneath her. "Surge, wait up!"


End file.
